Jewish Refugees

Tuesday, 10 January 2017 07:50

We need your help in locating Jewish refugees who came to San Francisco in the late 1930s and 1940 and their descendants. As restrictions tightened against Jewish people under Nazi rule in Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, several hundred Jews applied for entrance to the United States. They had the good fortune to have relatives and sponsors in the U.S. After traveling across Russia to China and Japan, they boarded ships for San Francisco. Dozens of families and individuals ended up at the Angel Island Immigration Station, underwent medical inspection and were detained for weeks because they did not have sufficient funds to reach their eventual destinations.

The database you see below was compiled by volunteers who reviewed files at the National Archives in San Bruno, California. Please contact AIISF by writing to info@aiisf.org or call 415-348-9200 if you recognize any of the individuals listed below. We would like to interview the descendants in order to get the full story on these brave and fortunate people who fled the Nazi regime. Most of these refugees lost their entire families in the Holocaust. Their stories remind us of that genocide must never be allowed to happen again to any group of people. This database also contains names and short profiles of Jewish refugees who came to Angel Island prior to 1939. After 1915, large numbers of Jews from Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. Many of them were men who had left their homelands to avoid military conscription. Families also fled because of anti-Jewish violence. Many families were able to enter the United States with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Musician; Literate; Came via Harbin, China; Has $315 and paid own passage; To join brother (Nathan Goldwajg) in NYC for permanent residence; Admitted.

16243/16-1

Gondis, Clara

F

Russia

1871

6/7/1917

Siberia Maru

3 weeks

Seamstress; aunt in NY; Promised job in SF by Armenian suspected by Board to have ulterior motives; Excluded as LPC; Appeals; Assisted by Traveler's Aid

14835/04-12

Granow, Haim

M

Russia

1880

11/27/1915

Seattle Maru

7 days

Wanted to avoid conscription; Wood chopper; Literate; Father paid passage; Cousin (Kyap Altshuler) in SF; Has $3.50; Cousin (Herman Altshuler) called to witness; Excluded as LPC; HIAS request case be reopened with new evidence of a railroad ticket to NY; Outcome unclear

16551/03-15

Graudin, Austra

F

Russia

1899

9/19/1917

Vondel

1 mo

Dressmaker and music teacher from Riga, Latvia; No money; Going to brother-in-law in Utah; Sister caught as stowaway and detained in Honolulu; Fellow passenger Hilda Tambert acts as interpreter and witness--willing to take care of her until sister arrives; Admitted under care of Tambert

Inspectors noted that Rosa, a Austrian Jew, was fairly well educated but was initially detained because she had too little cash to travel to family in Chicago or New York. She was finally allowed to land after her aunt Helen sent her money.

14622/18-9

Gurewitch, Sholom

M

Russia

1891

8/30/1915

Persia

6 weeks

Housepainter from Warsaw; Made way to Harbin; Left to evade military service; Cousins in NY; Excluded as LPC; Traube introduce guarantor S.J. Polin denied; 10/11/15 letter about transportation money to Chicago; case reopened

Max was 35 years old when he arrived at Angel Island on June 16, 1940. He was born in Ritzing, Germany and was initially destined to join his friend Joseph Friedrich in New York. Upon arrival, he was denied entry due to his qualification as a person likely to become a public charge. He was held until Sept. 14, 1940 when a $500 bond was posted on his behalf by Morris Mandl and his wife Melvin Mandl, a relative and a consulting engineer living in Passiac, New Jersey. After the bond was posted, Max settled in San Francisco taking a job as a waiter at Bunny's Restaurant on Market Street as of Sept 9, 1941. On Mar 31, 1942, Melvin Mendl wrote a letter informing the Dept of Justice that Max had joined the US army at Sheppard Field, Texas.